Friday, 22 February 2013

Please note that this blog has now moved to Kidsinthegarden. We would love you to take a look.

This week we had an invite to visit Dean City Farm just
South of Wimbledon.I was slightly
uncertain whether it would hold enough interest for my 8 yr old. However my
friend knows me well. ‘ They also have a community garden’ she says dangling a
large carrot before me and knowing that I am never one to miss the chance to
visit a garden.

The Farm is situated on land owned by the National Trust’s
Morden Hall Park, but you enter the farm through a light industrial site.It certainly is in an urban setting.However this is just one side of the
farm.The other boundaries are the River
Wandle (this is the river that gives Wandsworth its name) and the tram line
which runs between Wimbledon and Croydon.This tramline is a real added bonus for children as the trams are frequent, a bit of a
novelty in this part of London and great for spotting.

Morden Hall Park

Our day started with a quick foray into Morden Hall Park.What a delight- a wander along the river Wandle, a foot
crossing over the tramline and you then find yourself in a wetland environmentwith bull rushes and reeds.The Park also has a woodland play area and
I’m assured by one of my companions that the rose garden has the most perfect
stream for a hot summer's day paddle.The
children loved the woodland play area and all the bridges in the Park . It was poo sticks galore.There was even one little chappy with a huge
supply of sticks on a bridge merrily handing them out to any passing child. The wetland area the paths were flat and easy
for every child to run around and trace
arrows and names in the sandy soil.

Dean City Farm

The Farm has beautiful chickens, the woolliest sheep you
have ever seen and an eclectic selection of other animals.My son’s favourites were the ferrets!It has a riding school within it and children
can also become a farmer for a day or a week - real country kids.We learnt from one of them that why one of the goats had had its horns
cut to stop it curling around and cutting into its skin.I also learnt a use for those grapes that
seem to discolour so quickly.They are a
favourite with ducks, as are tomatoes and lettuce.White bread apparently does them no good what
so ever.

Community Garden

I have saved the best to last as we visited the community garden
at the end of our visit.The farm was
very busy on this very sunny February half term day.For some reason though most visitors passed
by the garden and there was an immediate feeling of tranquillity upon entering.The children loved it.It seemed to have all the elements to make it
really child friendly.Pathways to run
around, raised beds to make access to beds easy, a tree to climb, a pond and
places to sit and hide.For the wildlife
there were log piles and bee hotels.

Lots of the plants were labelled and many were
beginning to peep through the ground.It
was clear that many herbs and bee friendly plants were being grown.I loved the willow spyglass.The ‘prayer’ flags also seemed to work
perfectly in the urban setting. There was a large vegetable bed and all raised
beds for veg growing. It all served to
show what can be achieved in a relatively small space of ground

Two features, the turf maze and the fizzy bottle roof
building were just a delight.I have
seen greenhouses made of drinks bottles, but never a squashed bottle roof.Reading more about how it had been built on the
garden’s website made me feel quite jealous that I hadn’t been involved.It obviously had been a real community event.

This garden had clearly been designed and evolved with a great
deal of care and attention. The Farm is a touch of the countryside within the
city and within that there is this little oasis of a garden, well worth a visit
even if you do not have children with you.

For the past six years up until June last year I lived in Morden, so this is my old stomping ground! I used to walk in Morden Hall Park about four times a week and regularly went down to Dean City Farm. Really lovely to see a write up of it all and lovely photographs. It is indeed a little oasis in the hub of the city x

How lovely to read about Deen City Farm's community garden...I actually designed and built this garden in 2004 with a Children in Need grant! It was then continued by a wonderful arty women who beautifully complimented the features already there. Some very happy years and now I have my own children I really must go back and visit!

Sarah how lovely to hear from you (I love coincidences like this)- you should feel really pleased and proud with yourself you started such a lovely project. It did feel as if the garden had a female touch. Hope you get to visit it soon. I have other photos I could e mail you if you are interested. Many thanks for getting in touch